Recycling PLA

By Ben Everard. Posted

As you might imagine, we get through quite a bit of 3D printer filament here at HackSpace magazine. While most of it is PLA made from natural environments, we still want to be responsible with our waste, so we've been experimenting with recycling PLA using a simple heat-press to melt it down and re-form it. We're still finalising our technique which we'll share in HackSpace issue 68 next month, but we wanted to share some progress shots with you

You can make bowls by 'slumping' sheets of softened PLA over a mould

bowls

You can lasercut shapes out

necklace

By twisting the molten plastic, you can create patterns in the sheets

red-and-blue-end

A blast from a hot-air gun polishes the PLA to a high shine

shine

We really like the black-and-orange

The starting material is a mix of failed prints, support material and unneeded objects

before


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